Newcastle and Everton produced an entertaining game on Sunday – at sunny St James’ Park – in front of 50,000 fans – as both teams went for the win – although a 1-1 draw was probably a fair result.

Newcastle had Titus Bramble back in defence partnering Craig Moore while Peter Ramage (who had performed well there in the last two games) was moved to left back in place of the banned Babayaro. James Milner and Charles N’Zogbia were the wide men as Damien Duff was omitted with a thigh injury.

Newcastle’s goal was scored on 14 minutes by Ameobi, who was so clearly offside he turned to the assistant referee, but no flag was forthcomning and he did well, given the circumstances, to rifle past Howard for the goal. There was a time when Ameobi would have found it hard to score this goal but he seems much more adept these days at scoring – and once he gets his hip fixed (he’s had this injury for two years!) we’ll see the real Shola, who has surely learned a lot from his days with Alan Shearer.

Shortly after his goal Ameobi went off with an ankle injury to be replaced by the only other big man we have – Antoine Sibierski. After the goal Newcastle could (and should) have went further ahead but a lack of real penetration up front from Sibierski and Martins, and some good defensive work from Everton, ensured we didn’t.

Everton are a solid side this season and they slowly started to come back into the match and scored a good goal through Aussie Tim Cahill on 41 minutes. To be fair it was a deserved goal and sent the teams in level at half time.
The second half was fairly even and both sides went for the winner in the latter stages. Titus Bramble, after a clumsy tackle was sent off after 75 minutes (second yellow) only to be joined by Terry Hibbit two minutes later.

Stephen Harper, after a traumatic time at Liverpool on Wednesday, had a fairly easy game with not much to do, but saved well a couple of times in the last 15 minutes to ensure a draw.

Young Giuseppe Rossi, on loan form Manchester United, came on for the last 10 minutes for Obefemi Martins, who is still getting used to the pace of Premiership football. Rossi looked very sharp, rifling in two good efforts and forcing another two corners. If he had managed to score (he was certainly trying) he would have surely have been the darling of the crowd. We should play Giuseppe more than we have – he looks an excellent young star of the future (Ed: And you only have him for a few months).

Newcastle’s uncertainty in defence showed up again in this game, with the chief culprit being Titus Bramble, who one minute looks a colossus and the next miunute is more than likely to make a schoolboy error. We should have started with Moore and Ramage at the center with young Steven Taylor at left back – we cannot leave Taylor on the bench much longer – if he cannot get a game at center back – we should play him in one of the full-back positions.

All in all it was a good game to watch and an excellent advertisement for Premiership football.

Everton will do well this season, they have a solid team, hard to beat and with Andrew Johnson looking good up front they will be pushing for that 5th position.

Newcastle looked well organized but are lacking penetration in attack. Martins is taking time to get used to Premiership football – but maybe Kieron Dyer can help us out in this department when he returns in a few weeks.

Certainly, if 5th place is to remain a Newcastle target this season, we just cannot afford to drop points in these home games.